ACLU urges halt to CAPPS II

Related Links

Congress should stop development of a controversial passenger screening system until many planning issues are addressed, privacy advocates said today.

In a report released today, officials at the General Accounting Office found serious flaws in the planning of the Transportation Security Administration's Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II). Privacy advocates said the report validated many of their concerns involving inadequate privacy protections and poor planning and testing.

The study "cries out for Congress to step up and say the program has more problems than anticipated," said Bob Barr, former Georgia congressman and consultant with the American Civil Liberties Union. "Congress should at a minimum be halting it immediately at least for the time being if not permanently."

Barr joined Rep. Martin Sabo (D-Minn.) and other civil liberties advocates for a briefing today on the GAO report.

Sabo said the report doesn't signal the end of the program, but that more work remains to be done. "It says you've got lots of work to do," he said. "It clearly needs much, much more work before it's implemented.